Tertiary Education Commission Faces Another Round Of Damaging Cuts

More jobs are proposed to go from the Tertiary Education Commission as the Government forces it to take the axe to its budget again.

TEC staff were told today of the latest restructure which proposes a net loss of 22 roles, following the Government demand for a 5% spending cut to its operating funding. This equates to its baseline being shaved by another $12 million over the next four years. This comes on top of cuts made last year where 28 roles axed after TEC was forced to slash spending by 6%, and absorbing cost pressures, a $25 million cut over four years.

"The Government talks a big game about economic growth, but at the heart of thriving economies around the world is a well-funded, well managed tertiary education system and this is just the opposite," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

If these latest cuts are confirmed in May as proposed, TEC will have lost nearly 14% of its workforce in little over a year.

"This is a critical organisation already cut to the bone having slashed other costs like research, travel, contractors, property and IT.

"Ordering more cuts when the Government knows costs can only be saved by reducing the TEC workforce shows how little the Government cares about those who help our tertiary education sector function effectively.

"This is an agency overseen by multiple Ministers who are demanding it do more with less. We worry this will lead to increased workloads and burnout for an already stretched workforce.

"This is just more evidence of the Government ordering cuts without thinking of the long-term consequences. We have seen this repeated throughout the public service.

"All this speaks to a government which is desperately trying to balance its books and find savings down the back of every sofa, not matter how small, to fund its irresponsible tax cuts."

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